


An Ode (to that which goes thump in the night)

by light_rises



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Autistic Chara (Undertale), Codependency, Fluff, Heartbeats, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Late Night Conversations, Other, Pre-Canon, Pre-Slash, Sharing a Bed, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-11-01 14:14:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17868818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/light_rises/pseuds/light_rises
Summary: It was striking you that a good chunk of your conversations kept rounding back to this, the differences between monsters and humans. Or, rather, Chara was the one who zoomed in on the differences. They never failed to, as if not mentioning the obvious was a disservice or would give them a poor mark on a test you weren't aware of.Maybe it was a perk of being a boss monster, but you preferred to dwell on the ways you and Chara were the same. That interested you at least as much as the grody distinctions.--There's a first time for everything, such as sharing a bed with your best friend. Along the way, Asriel learns something about himself (and maybe Chara does too).





	An Ode (to that which goes thump in the night)

**Author's Note:**

> this is what i like to call the schmoopy b-side to ["we'll leave our bones in the dust"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12802473), though chronologically this comes before it (and after ["but our wishes are like tinder"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16228853))! in relation to [burning days (as we make our way)](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1154681) this is basically a sidestory, and it can be read on its own. you'll probably get more out of it if you've read the other fics, though
> 
> chara has some implied trauma + anxiety related to relocation that's touched on at the beginning of this fic. nothing too detailed, but keep this in mind as needed

The first night it happened, you woke with a start—in a new bed in a new room at a new place, _your_ new place—and after blinking at the bare ceiling for a few seconds, chest tight, you had one thought: you never knew you could hate moving _so much_.

Well, okay, "hate" was a strong word. It was fine (it _had been_ fine) until lights out came along _this night specifically_. You'd even thought of it as an adventure. A new part of the Underground to live in! With _real sunlight_ in a few spots!! The symbolism of moving the capitol so much closer to the Barrier hadn't been lost on you either, and your parents had worked extra hard to make the transition both as painless and exciting as possible. It was supposed to be momentous, and to you it had felt like that.

Chara still had the worst time of it, which wasn't unexpected. They practically sleepwalked through most of the process, just responsive enough to get up late in the morning and follow basic directions without speaking more than a word or two. You stuck by their side through a lot of it, and they you. Maybe Chara being Chara had been just that much of a distraction, had helped to make the whirlwind of change and upheaval sort of... pass you by, for a while.

Apparently "a while" had ended, and that night—the first night you and Chara could properly sleep in your new room—it hit you broadside with, like, an _ultra_ gnarly bad dream. _Great_.

It was almost annoying that you couldn't even remember what it was about, because after getting to your feet you waffled for what felt like hours between making a beeline to your parents' room and trying to tough it out so you wouldn't leave Chara behind. Chara _looked_ like they were sleeping just fine, but... you never knew. Them having a bad night too would be the least surprising thing. And what if they woke up all alone? Mulling this over left you standing in the middle of your shared bedroom like a dunce, sheets draped across your shoulders, nightlight on but no comfort at all while you worried your bottom lip.

Chara decided all this for you by sitting up while you had your back turned, calling out to you, you jumping halfway out of your skin which made _them_ jump halfway out of _their_ skin, and THEN (after about a minute of calming down) them asking if you wanted to share their bed.

"... Wait. Really?" No, like: _really???_ You weren't sure you heard right.

"I wouldn't kid you about that." They sounded and looked pretty mulish, though part of it was probably their bedhead making their tiny frown look more severe. The other part you could chalk up to Chara still being kind of frazzled from the jumpscare, since they huffed out a breath and went on to pull their comforter aside anyway, curtly. There was no mistaking the invitation.

You drew in a breath yourself, said, "S'long as it's okay with you... " It was sort of perfunctory though, because you proceeded to dive into Chara's bed, sheets flying out of your fingers, and squirmed around in the space they had left open for you in what was probably five seconds flat, if that. You had the presence of mind to keep to what was clearly your side of the bed while you tugged up Chara's comforter, until it settled nice and cozy a few inches above your shoulders.

Whatever excitement you had took a scant moment to dwindle. You faced Chara in bed and they faced you, and it was... awkward. Their eyes kept flicking to and away from your nose. After half a minute you took to looking at the half-foot of bed separating you, arms scrunched up against your chest. Your heart sped under the weight of all the awkward, an uncomfortable patter against your ribs. It was—you'd call it disappointing? Or frustrating. But it's not like Chara had ever let you do this before, so what did you expect?

You were about ready to roll over and mumble a good night when Chara said, "You'd like to cuddle, wouldn't you?"

You froze solid. Then slowly, slowly angled your head to stare at them. They stared back at your nose, mouth pressed to a thin line. You felt weirdly exposed, nerves on fire like magic gone unwieldy under your skin, and you almost hated it. "Th-that's—kind of a weird way to ask that?" you said, without really thinking.

Chara wincing at that made you want to smack yourself upside the head. They stopped looking at your face at all, frown deepening. "I'm such an ass," they said, in a murmur, and before you really _could_ smack yourself upside the head in real life Chara breached the space between you and took one of your paws in their hand, tugging it. It went boneless under their grip, pried away from your chest until you were both just holding hands on the bed. Their throat bobbed with a swallow, still plain as day to you in the gloom and soft, fuzzy light.

After an inhale, they said, "Do you... want to talk about it? The dream, I mean."

You blinked, still trying to take in—well, all of _this_. And Chara's attempt at tenderness, to top it off. "N-not really," you wound up saying. Even if you could've remembered, you're pretty sure you wouldn't have wanted to.

They nodded, sucking in their lips as they thought. Their fingers started to trace patterns on your paw pads and it sent tingles along the base of your skull as they said, "Want to talk about something else, then? Play a game? Something... just, nice, I suppose."

This was _very_ ineloquent by Chara's own standards. But they were trying so hard to comfort you; it eased the lingering tightness in your chest, made it feel warm. "Maybe, but... I probably shouldn't keep you up," you said, a little glumly. You were trying hard too, to be more courteous of Chara's needs. It was only fair, even if it didn't always make you happy.

They laughed once anyway, tonelessly. "I wasn't sleeping to start with. No loss there."

"Oh." Your mouth crimped with a frown. "Okay."

Things went quiet. From there you wavered, between feeling bad that all the adjusting from the move was probably why Chara couldn't sleep either and wondering if, just maybe... "Cuddling _would_ be pretty nice right now," you admitted, voice small.

Chara sighed, hand falling flat against your paw. "I figured as much." Despite everything, they didn't sound as resigned as you were bracing for, or even as nervous. Still, they hesitated, lips pursed and gaze well askew of your nose. "I can't claim to be particularly great at this," they said, a little stilted. "In case it wasn't obvious, I'm all bones."

You rolled your eyes, smile knowing as you gave their hand a squeeze. "You've got skin too, dummy. And like, some organs, I'm pretty sure? Blood?"

"All debatable."

You stuck out your tongue at them. "You do too but I don't care, you're warm and you're Chara! That's all I could ask for."

They went deathly quiet for a moment. Then, as a bright laugh stuttered out of them, "I can't believe you're more of a sap than your dad. _God_."

You shoved their hand away in a huff. "So what?? I'm big and tough and you can poke me all you want with your dumb boney arms. How about THAT?"

"As you wish, oh highness," they said, still giggling. And before you knew it Chara was rolling over to close the distance between you.

Not seeing this coming meant a few things happened at once: you tried to scooch towards Chara too, but your reaction was both a couple breaths too late and uh, too fast. The motion ended with your arms flailing half-blind and your forehead clobbering their sternum. They yelped something that was probably " _fuck_ ", you squawked back, then—then their arms and one leg hooked your torso and pulled _in_ ; no shove or kick outward. Your arm that wasn't pinned somewhere between Chara's left hip and your right flank found its purchase around their waist, latching on. At this, you both stilled long enough for you to realize that the side of your head was pressed to Chara's chest. You felt a long breath whoosh out of them.

" _Well_ ," they said. You could feel their voice hum through their ribs, and something like a steady backbeat to their breathing.

"Ugh... sorry." You started to rub circles along Chara's spine, for lack of something better you could think to do for them. "You okay?"

"I'll live. You?"

"Yeah." A pause. "Sorry again."

They sighed, and their own free hand found its way to the crown of your head. "Don't worry about it," they said, fingers set to scritching. "We're just idiots."

You stifled a snort. "That's true."

Chara snorted too, warmly, without stifling it. Quiet took over from there. You knew on a dim level that you should move your trapped arm before it went numb, but with no one talking your ear could finally register the backbeat in Chara's chest for what it was. And then you just—you took a few seconds to feel silly about it and then you _listened_ , as it thudded in time with the soft pulse of their heart against your cheek.

Huh. Maybe it shouldn't have surprised you, but it was... it _felt_ really nice, extra nice, to actually hear it. The way it ran counterpoint to the rasp of their breathing, too.

You were starting to count the beats, all hazy and idle, noting fluctuations and the rare flutter when Chara's voice cut in with, "Uh. Are you sure you're fine, Ree? You're usually up for a lot more talking."

You jerked back to look at them, face suddenly hot. "Uh." Uh. Well.

Honestly, Chara just seemed bemused, maybe a little concerned, but... ugh. Would this be a weird thing to admit, or?? "Y-yeah!! I'm good, it was just—um. Mm." Gingerly, you splayed a paw over the space your head had occupied, cradled in their chest. Chara didn't object, or even seem to notice, intent eyes still pinned to your face. "I got... distracted? Ha. I'd never heard a human heartbeat before, sooo... " You shrugged, trailing off with a weak laugh.

Chara's eyes widened and they raised their brows, but not in the judgey way you were fearing. "Oh," they said. It could be chalked up to your imagination, but you could've sworn their heart quickened a bit, in the gap between their "oh" and covering your paw with their hand. "Is it... that different?" they asked, in an odd tone.

You made a face at this, embarrassment dimming. "Nnnot, really? At least not compared to us boss monsters. Didn't my mom cover this in a lesson or something?"

Chara's sigh was thin, though not exasperated. "She did, yes." They closed their eyes, fingers lazily exploring the dips between your own. "Boss monsters: superficially mammalian from toe to tip, inside and out, unlike most types," they said, as if reciting from memory (though probably from their own notes, by the sound of it). "A close mirror to humans on the circulatory level, four-chambered hearts and all, veins and arteries. The works. It's what they're composed of and _what_ said systems are circulating that make the difference between species." Their eyes reopened, to half-mast. "Like with souls."

You nodded. "Yeah! It's, like... " You paused to drum your fingers, to think through how you wanted to word this. "It's weird to me, but I think it's kind of neat, too? Your body is made up of all this solid stuff filled with water and blood, but you don't need tons of magic to get everything working. Just a soul to, like, start the engine. That's pretty cool!" Another thought struck you, and it turned your smile wan. "My dad says being made of magic sounds powerful to a lot of humans," you added, "but that just means only one type of thing is holding our bodies together. And it's not even that tough. That makes you pretty lucky, when you think about it."

"I have," they replied, voice low, "and it's unfathomably fucking stupid."

You... weren't sure how mad you should be at this, so your face settled on a light scowl. "It's, really not? That's just how things _are_."

"I wasn't—" Chara stopped, with a flinch and another sigh that came out like a hiss. You saw their mouth and the skin around their nose pinch as they said, slowly, "I'm not saying you're wrong. It's this whole paradigm, the dichotomy of it that's stupid, because it's not fair and my body is, objectively speaking, a fucking joke."

"Chara, jeez, you're not—"

" _Don't._ Please _._ " That alongside Chara's glare got your mouth to snap shut, however reluctantly. Once some of the tension ebbed between you, Chara laughed, the noise dry as a husk. "I'm. Barely functional as a person half the year, if that," they continued, "but when push comes to shove even you and your parents are held together by duct tape and a prayer by comparison. There's no justice to it. _It's not fair_."

You had nothing to say to this; Chara wasn't wrong, either. And it was striking you that a good chunk of your conversations kept rounding back to this, the differences between monsters and humans. Or, rather, Chara was the one who zoomed in on the differences. They never failed to, as if not mentioning the obvious was a disservice or would give them a poor mark on a test you weren't aware of.

Maybe it was a perk of being a boss monster, but you preferred to dwell on the ways you and Chara were the same. That interested you at least as much as the grody distinctions.

Speaking of, you were suddenly all too aware of Chara's heart pounding away beneath your fingers, which... the, _feeling_ was nice? Actually? But the reason wasn't, not like when you'd horse around with them and Chara fell laughing on top of you, limbs tangled and hopeless and their chest flush with yours. It was still a good ways from the frantic gallop that signaled "Here Lies Chara, Unambiguously Stressed The Crud Out", and maybe they weren't all _that_ bothered, just fired up, but...

Guiltily, you lowered yourself into a huddle against Chara's side, rubbed small circles over their chest like you had done with their back earlier. "Sorry for upsetting you," you said, just shy of nosing the crook of their neck. "For trying to scold you, too."

They blinked once, twice. Under your paw, their ribs sank with a very long, very exhaustive exhale. "You're full of apologies tonight," they said, not unkindly. "They're appreciated." The line of their mouth softening, Chara touched their nose to yours. It was cold, so you nuzzled it, half out of instinct. A giggle escaped them, then, "You're still a huge sap, by the way."

"You missed the part where I don't care," you said gamely.

"I didn't, but: touché." They sounded like they were smiling now.

And that was how things settled, for a couple minutes. Your pinned arm was definitely going numb by now and you were definitely _definitely_ going to hate yourself later, but moving more than half an inch felt like the worst possible thing you could do. So you closed your eyes, focused on the rise and fall of Chara's chest and the thrum of their pulse as it started to level out, with no intention of sleeping just yet.

Some scatter of moments later, you opened them again to Chara staring at your paw and their hand on top of it, mouth quirked in an unreadable arch. When they caught your eye they said, a bit wry, "Huh. You really are fixated on that, aren't you?"

You jolted, nerves on _**double**_ fire, snatching your paw away like you'd been slapped.

"UGHHH I _knew_ it I knew that was weird and creepy!!!" you moaned, half out of embarrassment and the rest because you'd finally freed your other arm and it was waking up and it prickled _just enough_ to feel kind of nasty and, and: _ughhhhhhhhhhh_. Ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There was nothing for it but to banish your face into a pillow, for the rest of your potentially endless life probably.

From outside your new prison, you heard Chara say, " _Whoa_ Ree, hold on a minute, just—" You felt what was probably their shoulder bumping yours, then a poke between your shoulder blades. A pause, then: "Asriel. Please chill."

"M'not coming out." You had no idea if your words were legible, but Chara would just have to deal. "This is where I live now."

"That doesn't sound like a sustainable proposal."

"I don't caaaaaare, it's what I deserve!"

"I'm pretty sure that's not even slightly correct."

" _Mmmmmm._ "

"Ree." Another pause, and then Chara's hand alit on your shoulder, forearm resting along your back. "To get one thing straight," they said, tone shifted to casual, "what I've gathered is that you like to feel and—I guess now that you've experienced it firsthand, to listen to my heartbeat? Is that right?"

" _Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm **mmmmmmmmm**._"

"I'll take that as a 'yes'." After a moment, their hand on your shoulder turned into an awkward pat, and then a slightly less awkward rub; attempts at soothing you. You were pretty sure you would never be soothed again. "What if I told you I'm not inclined to find that creepy?" they said. "Or all that weird?"

That was enough to turn your head towards them—a temporary release, surely. Chara's head was on the pillow too, almost nose-to-nose with you. "Y-you'd better not be lying to me," you sniped.

"I promise I'm not. Really." Chara moved their arm, and you looked down to see them crossing their heart, in solemn motions.

You gave them your deepest frown, sniffling. "Ha ha, VERY funny."

"Look, that much I couldn't resist," they explained, matter-of-fact. Their expression softened with sympathy, though. "But seriously, you're not in trouble with me and it's not that b—oh, fuck." They blanched a little. "You're crying. Shit."

You blinked rapidly and grimaced, sniffling harder. Jeez. You didn't even notice your eyes were stinging and your nose was all clogged up until they mentioned it. How pathetic. You're so _pathetic_.

Before this train of thought could conjure another crying jag, Chara muttered, "I'm so bad at this," then placed one of their hands on your cheek, the one facing outward. Their touch was hesitant, feather-light to start, but then their thumb set to work on the tear tracks and gathered wetness around your eyes. Counterproductively, it made you want to start blubbering all over again.

Instead of doing that, you said, "Y-you really aren't freaked out about the, the thing then, are you."

"Hardly." Having done about as much as they could with their hand alone, Chara let it come to rest on one side of your face. "As I was going to say, on a scale of 'innocuous' to 'literally the only person I've met who didn't just want but actively _begged me_ to give him a play-by-play of the entire _Final Destination_ series', this is... tame? It's _incredibly_ tame. That would be true even if we weren't going by your standards."

You let out a wobbly sigh. "I really hope you're not just saying that to make me feel better."

"Uh-uh. Maybe it's not the same for monsters—biodiversity and all that—but a lot of humans like heartbeats as a baseline, on an instinctive level. It's not hard to see the appeal of liking them less casually, if you ask me." Chara went quiet here, and with that their hand moved on to fiddling with your ear. They were being gentle about it and it felt kind of nice, so you let them be. "I... do have one thing I'm curious about," they added, eyes averting.

You tilted your head against the pillow. "Sure?"

Chara hummed, carded their thumb and forefinger through the excess fluff at the very tip of your ear before saying, "Are you into _all_ hearts, or... " They withdrew their hand to press it flat against their chest, indicatively.

It didn't escape your attention that Chara's face was now red—not just the pink that never went away, _red_. You couldn't tell if that made you feel better or worse about answering.

But other than lying, there was no real way around it at this point. So: "It's... sssort of 'yes', to the first thing? That's basically true. But... " You gulped, gaze suddenly taken by a nick in the wall above Chara's bed. Your voice soldiered on, though. "When you said it earlier, that I like yours specifically? That's even more true. Maybe by, a lot. Um. Yeah."

Once you could muster the gumption to look at Chara again, you spied their wide eyes, the rest of their face gone inscrutable. "Explain," they said, halfway a command.

Something about their tone sent a flutter under your ribs. "What?" you said, dumbly.

"I want to hear it from you." Chara sounded brusque but earnest, a degree of intensity that caught you off-guard but hardly scared you. "I could guess if I had to, but—it wouldn't be the same."

You made a small, whiney noise in the back of your throat. You hated this?? But also, not? A not-so-small part of you _did_ want to talk about it, or to at least give it a go, and it was in pitched combat with how badly you wanted to crawl under your bed and never ever come out again. After a moment's deliberation, you dragged a paw down your face and made that noise again. "I-I could try?" you said. "But, you've gotta one-hundred percent _swear_ you won't make fun of me, okay?"

"I can do that." Chara nodded once, firmly, and that felt like a pinky swear in its own way. "Go ahead."

You took a huge breath, in, then out. Okay. Okay. Just, start from the top.

"Since... pretty much since I was little," you said, slowly, "whenever I had bad dreams, I'd go to my mom and dad's room and they'd let me sleep with them. I, uh. Thought about doing that tonight too, actually." Chara frowned, and you lent them what you hoped was a reassuring smile. "Anyway. They figured out pretty fast that if one of them let me sleep against their chest, I'd calm down right away. Being close to their hearts, the sound and feel of them, all cuddled up too... it was the nicest feeling ever, basically?" You shrugged, smile turning hapless. "I guess that means I've liked this sort of thing since forever, ha."

There was still an intensity in Chara's eyes, but they looked kind of thoughtful too. "That's mostly what I figured," they said. "For why you like it, I mean. So... " Chara's face twisted up for a moment, as they gave the side of their head a fierce scratch. "Presumably," they continued, "with me, some of those feelings cross over? But—"

"It's way different too, though! Because"—you wavered; had this inkling that if you didn't just _say it_ , right then and there, you never would, so—"because you're not family, you're my best friend! You're _you_ , Chara."

Their mouth went taut and their blush deepened, and that was all you could get out of Chara's reaction until they retook your paw in their hand, pulled it until it was curled against their chest. Their pulse drummed against your knuckles. " _Explain_ ," they repeated.

... Well.

You squeezed your eyes shut first. It was bad enough that this was going to be the most embarrassing part, that your own heart was thudding too briskly to ignore. But this aspect was also the fuzziest to you, hard to pin down aside from how Chara was your favorite person in the entire world. You still wanted to try, though.

"I think... " you said, eyes reopening, "you know how we feel different ways about being touched, right? You don't always want hugs or to hold hands, just... some space to yourself. I don't get it, not most of the time, but that's you. So"—you tightened your grip on their hand—"so when you _are_ okay with it, getting to be... y'know, close to you and such? It's really special." Here you slipped out of Chara's hand, paw pressing to their chest like before. "A-and. If I can feel or hear your heart, that means we're about as close as people can be. You'd _have_ to be, because—it's hard to notice a heart just by looking, if there's even anything to see. Sharing that makes it almost... kind of, a secret. If that makes sense? When you put all that together, you get double the special! At least for me." You paused for breath, made a last-ditch effort to defy the curl of self-consciousness in your gut. "It feels, like... like another way to know you're here and you're real, and that you want me here too. That's... the jist of it, I think. Yeah."

With that, pulse jittery in your ears, you waited on a response. Or, you would have, if not for two things: first, Chara had gone back to studiously eyeing your nose, the rest of their face blank and flushed to their ears; and second, their heart sped and batted your palm now, beating at a sprint. Uh oh.

"Um," you said. "Chara? Did, I say something wrong or... ?"

They shook their head. "You're fine," they said, in a thin, too-high voice. "I'm just. Processing." Chara managed a swallow, and in another moment they released a breath as they locked tentative eyes with you. "I'm trying this new thing where I take your sincerity at face value, skip the rigamarole of dissecting it." They hitched on a crooked smile. "Needless to say, it's a work in progress."

"Ha ha aww... " You scratched the back of your neck, mirroring Chara's smile. "Tooo be fair, that was, uh. A whole lot to unload on you."

"I specifically asked for it," they said, shrugging. That was true enough. "I can't blame you for being a good sport, and honest to boot."

"... Hee. Thanks, Chara." You let yourself bask in the glow of their compliment, before remembering: "Oh! So... " You hesitated, then gave Chara's chest a light pat. "It still feels like it's going pretty fast, but I guess it's okay?"

Chara blinked at you before laughing, warmly. "It's not part of an anxiety attack, no."

Oh, whew. That took a load off—until a few seconds later, when you realized that if their heart _wasn't_ racing from stress it had to be... something else?? Before you could get very far into thinking about it, Chara bodily reeled you in with a "come here", this time adjusting their position so they laid flat on their back and your arms had more wiggle room to settle in comfortably. Also, your head was farther up Chara's chest by a few inches. It didn't stop their heart from being loud and thumpy in your ear. Blindly, you groped around and found one of Chara's hands, held fast to it; you wouldn't be surprised if this was how you died and you might as well get the most out of it.

It was sometime after it became obvious you weren't going to dissolve into the ether that Chara said, "I guess it's safe to assume this is comfortable?"

"Y—yeah." You coughed, since that had come out more like a squeak. "So... I guess, that's it? You don't mind?"

"I kind of figured doing this was answer enough," Chara said, amused. They patted you on the back for emphasis and you rolled your eyes. "It _is_ fine though, honestly," they added, tone gentling. "Laying everything out didn't put me off, you just made it sound... kind of, sweet? Intensely sappy too, but—y'know, that's established. That's _you_. And, well. I like you. That works for me."

... You were pretty sure you hadn't smiled this easily in, like, ages. Or felt so relieved, insides gone fizzy. You could float, maybe, and that wasn't just metaphorically speaking. "That's really good to know," you said, voice low and soft.

"I'm glad." The conversation lapsed comfortably, for almost a minute, or more. Who knew. Then Chara drew a loud breath, heart skipping a conspicuous beat as they said, "Also. For full disclosure, I guess. Remember how I said I could see the appeal?"

Something about the way Chara said that got the gears turning in your head. Huh. Why were they bothering to draw attention to that when—oh. _Oh_. _Wait_.

You lifted your head sharply. " _You—_?"

"Up to a point. I... think." Chara was trying for another lopsided smile, but that they looked like a toned-down version of how you felt a few minutes ago was hard to miss. "I'm still trying to feel this out. I mean. I'm getting pretty attached to the pressure you're adding to my chest here, so no promises, but... " They stopped to lick their lips, trying even harder to avoid your eyes. "Let's, just say if you ever felt like, you know. Switching things up. That could be nice too."

You stared at them, then at nothing; did some processing yourself. Once your face grew so hot it was practically incandescent, you flopped back onto their chest headfirst.

"That... _would_ be fine with you, right?" Chara's voice cracked just the tiniest bit and _you swore to gosh_ this was going to kill you, two-hundred percent for real this time.

"Y— _yes?_ Of course it is???" You muffled some noises against their pajama top, being SUPER dignified about it. Then, on impulse, "You know that just gave me something to blackmail you with, right?"

Chara was nice enough to mock-gasp instead of point out the blatant shift in topic. "Threatening to tarnish my dispassionate image?! You wouldn't dare."

"Wanna bet?"

"Ree, _I_ wouldn't do that. Excuse me for not buying it from you."

 _Haha, you say that like you're such a bad person_ , was the thing you almost said but refrained from, by the skin of your teeth. Even if you tried your hardest to play it off as teasing, you knew by now it wouldn't blow over well. "Well, phooey," came out of your mouth instead.

"That is to say 'curses, foiled again!' et cetera?" they quipped.

"See, that's why you're my friend, Chara." You moved your thumbpad over the skin on their inner wrist, fighting off a yawn. "I'd snap my fingers and pretend I had a cool cape to whip around, but the thing is I'm probably never gonna move from here again."

"Huh. That's all it takes to keep you from going off the rails?"

"I mean, _duh_. The power of friendship and cuddles is just like that."

"That's a bold statement. Adorable, though."

"It's a _true_ statement, buttface."

Chara's laugh jostled the side of your head. "Okay, okay! If you say so, Dreemurr."

"I _do_ say so," you answered primly. "Guess that means the world'll have to live without knowing what I'm like as a baddie."

"Alas." After a beat, Chara continued in more dramatic tones: "Thus ends your stab at cartoon villainy. Not with a bang, but a... _ticker_."

It took every ounce of willpower you had to not fling Chara's hand away from you.

" _Chara_."

"Asriel."

"That's not even a pun!!"

"Not with that attitude it isn't."

You wrinkled your nose, disgusted (and charmed, but like heck were you going to admit that). "I'm going to sleep. Wake me up when you stop being a buttface."

"Enjoy your full night's rest, then. At least one buttface around here has to keep the proverbial seat warm."

It wasn't even _that_ funny, but it kicked a few giggles out of you. "Tha—that doesn't make sense!"

"Not really," Chara admitted, and their chest was abuzz with laughter they were failing to keep at bay. "But I got to say 'buttface' too, so who's the _real_ winner here, Dreemurr?"

The giggles now threatened to burst into obnoxious peals. " _Why d'you keep calling me by my last name???_ "

Chara tried to answer, at least you thought, but their laughter plus mashing their face into the nearest pillow to muffle themself made it indecipherable. That stopped mattering to you the moment you had to follow suit, with your face buried in Chara's comforter. _It wasn't even that funny_ but it kind of was; lack of sleep and fluttery closeness had decided that for you both, until minutes passed and you and Chara were too spent on laughing to do more than wheeze, half-giddy still, huddled in a pile of limbs and souls and beating hearts.

You guessed that made you a liar. _Actually_ falling asleep as promised took... a while. On the whole.

But in a roundabout way, that's what you remember most about that night, other than the obvious: despite their declarations to the contrary, Chara fell asleep first. You wouldn't say you caught the exact moment, if that was even possible, but it struck you between the eyes once you noticed—their breathing gone deep and even, their pulse reliably steady, almost slow. A glint of suspicion told you they could be faking it, a ploy to rack up prankster points. But mostly you didn't want to move or breathe wrong or do basically _anything_ to ruin it, just in case. Chara's peace was fragile, whenever it came along. As much as you wanted everything from them at all times, you still knew it would be too mean to snatch that away, whether carelessly or on a hunch.

It took minutes you forgot to count to finally convince yourself Chara wasn't punking you. You sighed and nursed a bright warm feeling, as much out of relief as... a sense of accomplishment? That seemed right, somehow. If enduring a nightmare and spilling your guts to your best friend was what it had taken to get there, maybe it was all worth it. Even the move, for the part it played.

That was the thought buzzing in your head when Chara gave your paw a squeeze—soft, but not so soft that either of you could pretend they were just twitching in their sleep. You snerked quietly, said, "You're not that boney, by the way."

"Liar." They spoke it drowsily, with no heat, and you heard it as much through their ribs as their mouth. "Go to sleep, doofus."

You breathed a laugh, giving their hand a squeeze right back. "Goodnight, Chara."

They mumbled something that might've been "goodnight", but it came out more like an indistinct hum. You decided it was okay, knowing what that plus their now-slackened grip probably meant.

Eventually you slept for real too, and Chara's heart was calm as you drifted off.


End file.
